A few parting thoughts as we leave Seattle and head home. It is really hard to believe we have reached the mid-point of our trip and now we will start to work our way back East. It was too bad we didn't get to see Sean because he was out on the USCGC Midgett but we did enjoy our visit with Karen.
Karen's House
One last Mother/Daughter Picture
Seattle is much hillier than I every thought it was . . . it reminds me of Pittsburgh. I wouldn't have a stick shift car if I lived here or Al would be replacing the clutch all the time.
One more thing . . . .we noticed little coffee drive thru places on corners all over. We understood why after this weekend . . . lots of rain and damp weather.
We left Seattle and headed South with the goal for the day to visit The Evergreen Aviation Museum . . . home of The Spruce Goose.
Quick view of the Columbia River
Portland Oregon from the car
Lots of pictures of planes. This was a very interesting museum and The Spruce Goose is a Huge Plane!
A Coast Guard Plane! How timely.
The Sopwith Camel
Planes, Planes everywhere.
Al reading about a Curtis.
A Flying Tiger
A stunt plane actually hung upside down!
The white plane in the foreground is a replica of the Wright Brothers Plane The grey one is a partial shot of the Spruce Goose.
The Plane in the background is a full size B17 the foreground is the tail section of the Spruce Goose
The tail section of the Spruce Goose and a full size helicopter.
There were lots of planes inside and outside but it started raining while we were in the museum so we didn't get to walk around the outside exhibits. It is a very well done aviation museum.
Tomorrow is a driving day to get near to the entrance of Yosemite National Park. Creswell, Oregon to Mariposa, CA . . . .on the road again.
Once again it is raining here . . . it has rained every day we have been here and most days before we got here. We heard on the weather forecast this morning that as of this morning Seattle is having their wettest March in history breaking a record set back in 1963. Of course we are here for it . . . who wouldn't want to be here for such a momentous occasion.
Today, the goal was to go and find a geocache in a park that supposedly had coordinates that were 80-90' off. We thought when we left the hotel that this was not going to be any fun because it was raining fairly hard but by the time we drove to Karen's the rain had let up for a few minutes and we decided to go for it. My mistake was not taking the camera with me because the trails were muddy and the dogs were muddy but we had a nice "walk in the woods" and found the cache besides. We went back to Karen's and she made lunch . . .a fabulous spinach salad with bacon, goat cheese and dried cranberries. So healthy . . .well maybe not the bacon part but everything is better with bacon.
We decided to go back to the hotel to work on some research for dinner places, and write some logs while Karen was doing some things she needed to do. We planned to meet up around 6:00pm I found a newly opened brewpub within 5 miles of the hotel . . .Diamond Knot Brewpub at Mount Lake Terrace.
The food was good. Al and Karen enjoyed the beers and we bought one to take to Georgia.
Spooky was snuggling up to Al in the back seat of the van.
Last picture of the day is a Karen and Mom selfie
The 7 National Parks part of our blog title should be amended to 5 National Parks. New snow falls in the area of Crater Lake and Lassen Volcanic will prevent us from visiting those parks. We made some changes to our itinerary and will have to come back to the West Coast again.
Tomorrow we begin the trip home with a stop in Oregon to see the Spruce Goose.
I made reservations for The Taste of Seattle Tour - Pike Place Market to begin at 10:30. We were supposed to be there 20 minutes early so we planned to leave Karen's house around 9:40. We left Karen's a couple of minutes late then that was compounded by rush hour traffic or just plain traffic in the city that made us later and we missed a turn but I got a picture of the home to the Seattle Seahawks . . . .that was cool.
Seahawks Home Field
We found the parking garage that they suggested but had no idea where to
go from there until Al saw a sign for the elevator to the market . . .
.we took that and arrived at the market about 10:40 so I called the
number they gave us and the very nice lady on the other end directed us
to Dilly's Doughnuts where we were able to met up with our tour. The best part about
it was it was the 1st tasting spot on the tour. The tour consisted of about 12 people and a guide named CJ. We made several stops through the Market, learned some history and had a really great time. One of the best stops on the tour was at Pike Place Fish Co.
Known for it's famous throwing of the fish, CJ asked if anyone from our tour wanted to try to catch one. A guy named Peter volunteered. Karen took a video . . .see below
These are my pics of the fish throwing.
This is CJ our guide with the fishmonger . . .I think his name was Eric.
Eric getting ready for the throw. See the fish in his hands
Fish in the Air
Peter missed and someone from behind the counter tossed the fish back to Eric . . .who caught it.
On one of the next stops we got to see what it was like behind the counter of Chakas Cherries and taste some delicious chocolate covered cherries . . . yum!
Look at the beautiful Spring Flowers. The huge bouquets in the front were $10 to $15. The all smelled so good.
Karen and I at Pike Place Market
One of the last stops on the tour was outside of the "Original Starbucks" In actuality the original Starbucks was down the street but burnt to the ground so they used the original license to open this store. There a bunch of rules that stores have to follow to be in the Market and so Starbucks sort of skirted the rules for this store. Note the original logo in the window. The musician playing outside was very good. They have rules to follow at the Market too. They can only play at the music notes painted on the sidewalks, they can only play for 1 hour at each spot and then they have to move and they have to get a $30 permit for the year to play.
The tour made it's final stop at the end of the Market Place. We had some fabulous crab cakes from Etta's Seafood, nearby restaurant of a famous Seattle chef Tom Douglas. Outstanding . . . .almost as good as those we get on the Outer Banks.
A few parting words from our guide and the tour was over. I would highly recommend it to anyone coming to the city from out of town.
As we walked back to the elevator and our car I took one final picture of the Seattle Great Wheel . . . something for next time we come to town along with visiting the Space Needle.
We made our exit from the city before the afternoon rush hour. We watched some TV (to catch up on NCIS before the 2nd part this week) and talked for awhile at Karen's house then decided to have some Lunch/Dinner/Happy Hour at The Alehouse. A very nice place to go and not very far from Karen's house.
Not the greatest picture of us but I'm posting it anyway.
Tomorrow we are going to find a geocache in a nearby park, relax and spend some more time with Karen.
Today is a travel day with not much else going on. The plan is to get from Boise, Idaho to Bothell, Washington (near Seattle) without getting caught in a snow storm. The weather for this 500+ mile stretch called for rain but that is at the lower elevations and we had 3 mountain passes to go through. I had the MiFi set up so I could check the 511 web cams as we approached each area in question. While I was getting all of the electronics set up we crossed the Idaho state line into Oregon and I missed the picture so I borrowed one from our last trip
We noticed the landscape changed into sweeping green valleys shortly after we entered the state. The striking feature that took us a bit of time to realize was that there weren't any trees. We guessed that it was green because of the moisture left in the soil from the winter snow melt but that it is actually very poor soil and dries out in the summer as there were also lots of sage plants and tumbleweed along the fences.
Still following the Snake River just like the pioneers did.
Then we started up and found the snow. By the time we reached the top of the pass there was a good coating on the road but they didn't have the chain up lights on so we trudged on through and as we started down there was . . . .
Rain, rain and
more rain. We were grateful to be out of the snow and for the temperature to be rising. As we approached the border to Washington we could see the sun shining there.
Of course Al was passing a truck and I didn't see the sign until it was too late so I took the picture anyway but . . . .
this is what it really should look like.
Southwestern Washington is primarily agricultural. . . .apples, cherries, grapes and more. There are many small wineries that we have visited on previous trips and it would be fun to do again sometime.
A few sprinkles on the windshield . . . almost spoiled my picture of the vineyard.
The final pic of the day is of Snoqualmie Pass, the last mountain pass in the distance.The road was clear and dry although there was plenty of snow on the sides at the top.
We made it to our hotel about 4pm despite lots of rush hour traffic. Fortunately, for us, we could use the HOV lane because we had 2 people in the car. It is unreal to see how many people are making the commute to Seattle everyday alone.
We drove about 5 miles (15 minutes) to Karen's house and went to dinner with her at The Rock - Wood Fired Pizza and Spirits . . . . forgot to take a picture though. After dinner it was back to the hotel for a good nights sleep.
Tomorrow we are doing the Taste of Seattle Tour - Pike Place Market.
